• Question: Why did you choose to study polymers?

    Asked by James T to Anne, Arthur, Rose, Ruhina, Thomas on 15 Jun 2015. This question was also asked by POwen, Taryyyyyyyyn, Courtney, 803pmrc35, kirandeep, Rebecca.
    • Photo: Ruhina Miller

      Ruhina Miller answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      Unlike the others I don’t specifically study polymers (or surfactant polymers) – but they are useful/used in my everyday research 🙂

    • Photo: Arthur Wilkinson

      Arthur Wilkinson answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      The simple answer is that upon leaving school I was offered a job in the polymer industry. However I soon became a big fan of polymers, as my colleagues would tell you!

    • Photo: Anne Canning

      Anne Canning answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      I also didn’t set out to study polymers, but they’re very useful as structures to grow cells on, so I now think they’re pretty cool.

    • Photo: Rose Simnett

      Rose Simnett answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      I decided to study polymers after trying a few different areas first. I did two summer placements whilst I was at university. The first was working on fluorescent dyes for making solar cells out of windows and the second was synthesizing nano-particles for catalysis. I also did a masters project on making catalysts for polymer synthesis. These 3, quite different projects, allowed me to decide what I enjoyed and what I didn’t enjoy so much.

    • Photo: Thomas Farrugia

      Thomas Farrugia answered on 21 Jun 2015:

      I didn’t go into my PhD with the deliberate intention of studying polymers – they’re a tool that I use to modify my proteins so that I can make the films.

      I do have a second project starting up soon which will involve making some polymer from scratch, so that’s going to be a bit of adventure for me, since I haven’t done synthesis since my undergraduate lab!

Comments